The Irish standard., 1887-07-30
CLOCK MANUFACTURE.
An Industry That Has Undergone Great
Changes Within q Few Decades.

An Industry That Has Undergone Great
Changes Within q Few Decades.
The old Yankee clock-tinker has
drifted into New York and is making
fewer acquaintance but more money
than of yore. One of the clock experts
of the city, D. w. Bradley by name,
left his route in this country, came to
the metropolis and made $4,000 year
winding and repairing the new ten
tower clocks then in the city. An era
of competition in clock winding, as in
every thing else struck New York, and
now dozen men are at it, and the old
winders, like Mr. Bradley, have gone
into the service of the extensive clock
makers at handsome salaries. Two
winders have almost monopoly in the
care of the many tower clocks, which
they wind once week, and they earn
their money, for it is hard labor to raise
twelve hundred pound weight with a
thousand or more turns of key.
One firm employs a clockmaker to
devise curious time-pieces and he has
under him five men who are busy all
the while winding clocks in private
houses, which they visit once week.
Some of the Fifth avenue mansions
have from twenty to thirty clocks,
from the one dollar clock in the serv-
ants room to the three hundred dollar
time-piece in the grand hall. Ten
dollars a month or more is paid for
this service, and the wirder, who must
be clock tinker as we'll and keep the
time-pieces in order, has certain day
for visiting each house. To do his
work without obtruding upon privacy
requires tact. Bradley Martin, the
millionaire lawyer of New York City,
has the finest collection of clocks in the
metropolis, although it does not equal
the famous assortment owned by
George w. Childs, of the Philadelphia
Ledger.
A large amount of capital is invested
in electric clock corporations in the
metropolis. There have been half a
dozen or more styles of electric clocks
since their manufacture was begun
about 1885, one of the latest being a
clock of obliging pattern which winds
itself every twelve hours by an electric
motor. 1t comes as near perpetual
motion as machinery after fruitless
struggle Of many years has been able
to get.
The six big clock factories of the
United States, all of which are in the
same section of Connecticut. ship inn
mense quantities of clocks from this
city to all lands The Chinese and
Japanese nations took to American
clocks with great eagerness after the
Centennial. The trade suddenly fell
off, and an investigation revealed as
the cause of the fact that the ingenious
Chinese had begun to counterfeit the
clocks, and were turning their product
out at prices that the American makers
couldn't touch.
In the rooms of some Of the con-
servative old Mongolians of China
town, who refuse to accept Caucasian
innovations, may be seen the clocks
they have fetched from China. These
clocks do not have circular dials. They
are high affairs, the hours being marked
off on slot that runs from top to bot
tom of the frame. A weight drops
down the slot every day, and as it falls
all indicator on it marks the time along
the slot. The day is divided into
twelve parts.
In the office of one of the big clock
concerns is the time-piece by which a
native missionary in South Africa
preached his sermons. 1t is brass
bowl with little hole in its bottom.
The bowl is placed in a gourd of water,
and when it fills and sinks the preacher
knows that an hour has elapsed, and if
he is wise he concludes his sermon. It
is alleged that a wag once plugged
this time-piece, and the preacher, see
ing it still above water, talked on and
on until his sermon dragged on its ap-
palling length over three hours, which
caused so much dissatisfaction among
the congregation that the minister pur.
chased nickle-plated two-dollar watch
and became the marvel and envy of al
his townsmen.-M Y Cor. PhikGdeI
sohin Press